Australian psychologists recently warned that telling children that Father Christmas brings them presents could cause them to distrust their parents. Pity then, the Icelandic child who is told to put a shoe in the window to receive presents from not one but thirteen visitors. Pity too the parents expected to come up with thirteen gifts before the main event on Christmas Eve. Might this explain why Iceland has the highest use of anti-depressants among OECD countries?

Herne Hill’s The 12 Free Films of Christmas kicks off in earnest today. They had a practice run yesterday, showing Dinner For One, a Christmas staple in Germany and several other countries. If you fancy one, just turn up. No tickets, no booking, just first come, first served.

I was twelve when the BBC screened The Signalman as its Christmas ghost story and was hooked on the concept. This was my first exposure to this BBC tradition and the Beeb’s first Charles Dickens adaptation, following a run of MR James tales.

These programmes were an echo of the Victorian tradition of fireside ghost stories, best known of which is A Christmas Carol. A goodly chunk of InDulwich’s audience will have read it and seen film versions with Alastair Sim, George C Scott and the Muppets. I reread it last Christmas and then stumbled across it’s much less well known follow up, The Chimes.

Life throws up unusual invitations on a regular basis. Last week it was a rap concert in a palace, this week it’s a meeting of the cocktail cognoscenti at the salubrious basement hangout, The Worship Street Whistling Shop in Central London.

This meeting of minds was arranged to sample the merits of South Africa’s newly released premium Cruxland Gin.
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Our Guest Beer is Professor Jason Box, based in Copenhagen and studying the A-Z of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). Professor Box has been reporting that the GrIS is currently beyond its’ "threshold of sustainability" and is losing ice mass due to global warming at a ferocious rate.

Marrakech sits at the feet of the High Atlas mountains, whose snow capped peaks form a natural border between this rich agricultural corner of Africa and the Sahara desert that spreads to the south, imposing itself firstly in the form of rocky arid tinted red Mars like landscape, and eventually giving way to vast sand dunes, only navigable by the ancient Berber and Sahrawi peoples.

On a walk from Guildford to Silent Pool, I discovered that Pewley Down had been donated to Guildford by Friary Brewery. The land had been earmarked for development but in 1920 the brewery decided it should remain a public space and dedicated it to the memory of those who died in World War One. Friary Brewery is long gone but its legacy remains. Perhaps other businesses might be inspired.

Autumn demands a comfort beer and Parkin Brown Ale from Bullfinch Brewery fits the bill. First, InDulwich earned its pint by interviewing the affable owner, Ryan Mclean about all things craft beer. In this first clip, he talks about how Bullfinch came to be.

Lucian of Samosata’s True History is a delirious read, with nary a true word in it. InDulwich has an interest in beer and wine (as well as literature) and Lucian’s story includes a cracker of a wine tale. But first, he makes a confession; “because I had no matter of verity to employ my pen in (for nothing hath befallen me worth the writing), I turned my style to untruths”. It seems the 2nd century has something in common with the 21st.

InDulwich popped down to wild + lees at 2 Half Moon Lane for it’s opening last night and enjoyed a glass of fresh and fruity Cline Viogneer 2015, enough to buy a bottle to take home. It was a relaxed opening; Open bottles and some nibbles, couple sitting at the window counter drinking a bottle of cava and interesting labels to catch the eye.

Herne Hill’s new wine shop, wild + lees will open tomorrow afternoon. It’s almost ready, except for the small matter of the stock but that is on its way. “I’ll have some bottles open, to welcome people in”, says Liam Plowman, the owner.

What is it with south London and cinematic horror? No snide remarks please. Cabs do go south of the river these days. No less than four of the horror greats were south Londoners. Boris Karloff and Peter Cushing spent parts of their respective childhoods in Camberwell and Dulwich, Elsa Lanchester was a Lewisham girl and Lionel Atwill lived a few miles south in Croydon. In that little grouping, you have the stars of a host of classic Universal and Hammer horrors and lots of ropey B movies too, of course.